Salem Witch Trials Memorial, Salem

An amazing place full of history. Being from California, you can't wrap your head around the amount of history there is here. Just walking among grave stones that are several hundred years old is a rare experience you can't do in many places. And to be able to do it on the night before Halloween adds that extra layer of thrills and chills.

The Salem Witchcraft Trials Memorial, located very centrally near the Peabody Essex Museum, is a quiet, modest, and yet very effective memorial to the twenty people who were executed in Salem in 1692 for the crime of witchcraft. The simple granite blocks, each one bearing the name of one of the victims, are set into a stone wall surrounding the small compound. Please note that six of the twenty were men! Also, many of them came from places outside Salem, like Andover, even as far away as Wells, Maine. This is a good place to sit for a few minutes and contemplate what really happened here. (Please do not sit on the individual stone tablets, as some people like to do.) There are often local guides here, and some of them are better than others. Read a little information before coming here, so that this fascinating little chapter of American History comes into focus for you.